Petal in the Big House

If her chair is her home, Petal doesn’t get out much.

Her room—I usually call it the sunroom—connects the rest of the house to the back yard, so Petal just watches from her chair as Phyllis and I (and Zuzu) walk past her on our way in or out.

We know she gets down from the chair during the night, sometimes to play with Zuzu. Their toys get tossed all around the sunroom, but we almost never find a toy in the rest of the house, even though they have access.

Petal is always back in her chair before we get up.

Until this morning.

After Zuzu wakes us up each morning—we keep her pet door closed off during the night, and she barks when she needs to go out—she will stand just inside our bedroom door and watch us as we start to move around.

This morning, to our delight, they were both standing there, and you could tell Petal was still in a playful mood. Neither of them will come to us when called, but as I sat on the edge of the bed, she repeatedly ran out of the bedroom and back in, always freezing just inside the door and looking at me, tail up and wagging, until I acknowledged her from the bed. Each time I said her name, she ran out and back in.

The important thing to note: Petal was in “the big house,” interacting with us, and she came under her own power. We didn’t carry her, and she was free to return to her sunroom, and to her chair.

Then we all went out to the back yard, for a very short time, with nobody being carried. Another first for Petal.

Now she’s back in her chair, seemingly stuck to it, and her expression is once again filled with trepidation. I have already had to carry her to the yard again.

We have learned that these apparent breakthroughs (like seeing Petal in our bedroom this morning) might just be one-offs, not to be repeated for a long time, but today still feels like a win.

It has been five months since adoption day.